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Seaside Fire Welcomes Chief Mary Gutierrez
The Seaside Fire Department is proud to announce the appointment of Mary Gutierrez to be Seaside’s next Fire Chief. Ms. Gutierrez brings thirty-one years of experience in the fire service to the position, including service as a Battalion Chief in the San Jose Fire Department and service as a Division Chief and Acting Chief in the Gilroy Fire Department. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ms. Gutierrez was selected following an open, national recruitment, with 32 applicants. A five member interview panel including Police Chief Pridgen, Fire Chief Dempsey and Seaside Firefighters Association President Captain Jason Black ranked her as the leading candidate following the interviews, and her reference checks were excellent.
Ms. Gutierrez began her service as Seaside Fire Chief on January 4. She will be succeeding Chief Brian Dempsey, who retired in December 2020. Ms. Gutierrez said she was drawn to apply for the Seaside position “given the excellent reputation of the Seaside Fire Department and clear spirit of teamwork across the City’s departments”.
Please help us in welcoming Chief Gutierrez to the Seaside Family.
Seaside Fire Launches Performance Dashboard
Since 1954 the Seaside Fire Department has been responding to emergencies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This Performance Dashboard was created as a tool to showcase our commitment to the community to be transparent and to ensure that we continue to meet their expectations. It serves as a way for the community to visualize how we are measuring up against the performance goals that we have established.
Visit our Dashboard for real time response rates, incident reports, department goals & our community profile.
Seaside Fire Department Community Driven Strategic Plan
SFD has decided to seek Accreditation through the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) in order to assess and improve service delivery to the communities of Seaside and Del Rey Oaks.
In 2019 the department conducted a Community Driven Strategic Plan working with key internal and external stakeholders and the development of strategic initiatives.
The department believes this work will help build more effective strategies that align with the values of the communities. Click there to access the plan, including major goals and to understand more about the accreditation process.
The plan was delivered to the City Council in early 2020.
